New York Times on the Web Forums Science

Missile Defense

Technology has always found its greatest consumer in a nation's war and defense efforts. Since the last attempts at a "Star Wars" defense system, has technology changed considerably enough to make the latest Missile Defense initiatives more successful? Can such an application of science be successful? Is a militarized space inevitable, necessary or impossible?

Read Debates, a new Web-only feature culled from Readers' Opinions, published every Thursday.

rshow55 - 04:35pm Mar 4, 2003 EST (# 9435 of 9440)
Can we do a better job of finding truth? YES. Click "rshow55" for some things Lchic and I have done and worked for on this thread.

That may not be so long.

An alternative to physical force, sometimes - and a supplement for force - some other times - is correct information.

Infiltrators of North Korea: Tiny Radios By JAMES BROOKE http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/03/international/asia/03RADI.html

If the NK's knew more - they could make more adjustments. They're immobilized by fictions - and it is very dangerous. So are we - and that's dangerous, too.

We're involved with impasses that don't seem to make much sense.

Sometimes force does make sense - but I'd be a lot more comfortable if people found ways to force agreement on key facts - from all parties - before indiscriminate murder became the recourse.

Without correct information - how are people (or peoples) to make decent, safe decisions? How on earth could they do so? You can't even think about doing so - it is as impossible as thinking about "pulling yourself out of you own as*hole."

http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md01000s/md1761_1766.htm

http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md9000s/md9601.htm

7331 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@28.4WJ7auL44Dl.53570@.f28e622/8854 makes that point - and a point about the N. Korean negotiations that fits what the US is now doing - so that there need to be adjustments.

How moral is it - how sane is it - to ask people (or peoples) to do things that they cannot possibly do - because they don't have the information to make it possible?

We have to find ways to get facts established. Right now, that's not possible. Part of the problem is religious.

almarst2003 - 05:09pm Mar 4, 2003 EST (# 9436 of 9440)

"If Saddam had a brain"

He would not take the word of a "western scorpion" attacking Iran.

He would dismiss the silance of a "western scorpion" attacking Kuwait. However legitimate it could be. And it was a great deal legitimate.

However, now, just like bombing of Serbia, its not any more just a question of Iraq. Its a question how far the World would come in accepting the open, shameless and brutal coercion. Because its obvious to me, Iraq is just another "step" on the ladder to the Imperial goal.

Now its not a time for a brain. Its a time for a sacrifice and struggle. Otherwise, this UN charade will become this century Munich.

rshow55 - 05:12pm Mar 4, 2003 EST (# 9437 of 9440)
Can we do a better job of finding truth? YES. Click "rshow55" for some things Lchic and I have done and worked for on this thread.

We're dealing with matters of life and death here - and responsible people need to stand up for what they think is right - and can actaully explain to the people they are responsible to.

Religion is making the issue more difficult in some ways - but perhaps more soluble in some, as well.

Religion is having an important input in United States military and diplomatic decisions - in ways that can be humanizing - but ways that can be polarizing and blinding, too. In today's Bush: Diplomatic N.Korea Efforts Started By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Bush-Interviews.html there's this

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush says North Korea must be convinced that it is wrong ``to be threatening the United States'' with a resumption of nuclear weapons development.

In an interview with 14 newspapers from around the country ( (not including the NYT) , Bush noted Monday that diplomatic efforts are under way to persuade China, Russia, South Korea and Japan to Washington in seeking a diplomatic solution to the standoff involving the nuclear weapons program.

At one point he was asked by a reporter how he was preparing mentally and spiritually for a decision on whether to go to war.

`` I'm reading the Bible every day,'' the president replied, according to the Sun. ``I'm sleeping well at night. I am sustained by the prayers of the people.''

With religious perspective so central to decisions about war, it makes sense to consider religious issues as they connect to a fundamental pattern of human fairness and stability, the golden rule - an old ideal honored by many cultures for many generations. Perhaps especially so if one thinks that the notions of religion and logic that are making decisions about war and peace are those of gisterme or someone very close to gisterme.

See 8368 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@28.4WJ7auL44Dl.53570@.f28e622/9894 to 8379 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@28.4WJ7auL44Dl.53570@.f28e622/9905 for links to gisterme .

(3 following messages)

New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense